Conservation Consultants moves ahead with green roof, initiative

For the past 30 years, Conservation Consultants, Inc. (CCI) has been a cornerstone of the environmental community in Southwest Pennsylvania.

Established in 1978, it has gained a local, national and international reputation for providing energy-conservation services, developing renewable energy education programs for schools, communities and professionals, and creating partnerships among regional public, private and nonprofit organizations to support a sustainable future for Pittsburgh.

The non-profit organization has received the Governor's Environmental Excellence Award and its headquarters building has been named one of the top ten environmentally responsible buildings by the American Institute of Architects.

With energy demand and electricity prices rising, with climate change becoming increasingly urgent, with air and water pollution threatening our ecosystems, the need for change and personal action is becoming more and more important.

In celebration of Conservation Consultants' 30th anniversary, they are launching their most ambitious outreach program ever called the “Get Energy Smarter Initiative.”

They are currently developing a brochure for a cooperative mailing to approximately 140,000 Pittsburgh homes. This Get Energy Smarter brochure includes a series of energy-saving action items designed to be implemented by local families with little or no cost.

On September 24 at 5 p.m., CCI will hold a dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony of its new green roof. This is a significant credential not only for CCI but for Pittsburgh itself. Conservation Consultants is only the second non-profit organization in the country to have its own green roof in addition to being a Gold LEED Certified Building.

A Get Energy Smarter Community Expo is planned for October 12 from 1-5 p.m. at CCI's headquarters building at 64 South 14th Street on South Side. The Expo is a combination street fair and educational opportunity. This family-oriented event is intended to showcase new green projects at their building and also to offer motivation and practical energy-saving help.

A centerpiece of the Expo will be a mass trade-in of inefficient incandescent light bulbs for energy-saving CFLs (compact fluorescent light bulbs).

Individual actions add up: if every American home replaced their five most frequently used incandescent light bulbs with CFLs, close to $8 billion a year in energy costs could be saved… and greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from nearly 10 million cars could be prevented.

The Get Energy Smarter Community Expo is just the beginning. In the spring of 2009, Conservation Consultants will engage in a high profile, large-scale distribution of energy efficient CFLs geared toward engaging a large portion of a targeted population in a short amount of time. In conjunction with Earth Day, along with an international partner and a state Energy Harvest Grant, Conservation Consultants will launch the biggest CFL give-away ever in this region.

This is the largest outreach initiative in the history of Conservation Consultants which will result in a huge impact worthy of the size of the environmental problem this planet is currently facing.